1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to a cleaning robot for reducing labor, increasing convenience and improving cleaning performance, and a method for controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the industrial robot market has become saturated gradually since the 1990s, the intelligent service robot market is growing rapidly to provide robots imitating human judgment and action.
The intelligent service robots include human service robots, such as educational robots, personal robots and entertainment robots, which provide information delivery and emotional access to people, and home service robots, such as cleaning robots, security robots and pet care robots, which work on behalf of people at home.
Among them, a cleaning robot is a device which automatically cleans an area to be cleaned by suctioning foreign substances such as dust from the floor while autonomously traveling about a cleaning area without a user intervention, and reduces household labor hours.
The cleaning robot includes, as cleaning tools, a main cleaning tool to remove dust accumulated below a main body, and an auxiliary cleaning tool formed on both sides of the main body to protrude outward from the main body so as to clean a portion which is difficult to be cleaned by the main cleaning tool, e.g., an obstacle or a portion adjacent to the wall.
The cleaning robot repeatedly performs a cleaning operation by using the main cleaning tool and the auxiliary cleaning tool while traveling according to a preset traveling pattern. In this case, the cleaning robot performs cleaning while detecting an obstacle or wall located in the cleaning area through various sensors and the like, and controlling path movement and cleaning operations based on the detection results.
In the case of using this cleaning robot, the cleaning ability may be insufficient, it is impossible to recognize the user's intention, and it may be difficult to manipulate. Accordingly, there are many users who still prefer vacuum cleaners.
However, in the case of a general vacuum cleaner, since the user needs to move the cleaner, it requires a lot of labor of the user. In addition, in the case of the vacuum cleaner, as the suction power increases, the size and weight of the main body increase. This may result in an increase in the labor of the user during cleaning.